Brain Implants Powered by Spinal Fluid: Another Huge Step Towards Our Cyborg Future

The full-grown question for would - be cyborgs is : How are you go to power all those brain implant ? And now it looks like some MIT engineers may have slip up upon the response . They have developed a fuel cell that can head for the hills on your brain ’s own glucose — a discovery that could lead in powerful neuronic prosthetics that could restore and moderate a numeral of bodily functions .

Here ’s how it would work — plus why this breakthrough could combine with two other recent developments to make a cyborg future much secretive than it was before .

The glucose fuel cell is n’t an solely young idea . Back in the 1970s , scientists show that a pacemaker could be powered using your body ’s own simoleons , but atomic number 3 - ion batteries proved more practical . Moreover , a glucose fuel cell requires enzyme to work , which did n’t prefigure well for long - term implantation in the body .

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To overcome this problem , a team led by Rahul Sarpeshkar at MIT developed a new kind of glucose fuel cell that is made from atomic number 14 , the same engineering used to make semiconductor equipment electronic chips . As a resultant role , unlike the fuel prison cell of the seventies , this novel version has no biological portion . In the older interlingual rendition , cellular enzyme broke down glucose to generate ATP , the cell ’s energy currentness . But in the updated good example , it ’s a Pt catalyst that strips electron from glucose .

The result : a fuel cell that can render up to hundreds of microwatts — enough power to fuel a neural implant .

And unspoiled of all , there ’s small chance for rejection or long - term diminished function . From theMIT word going :

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[ The researcher ] calculated that in hypothesis , the glucose fuel cell could get all the lettuce it require from the cerebrospinal fluid ( CSF ) that bath the brainpower and protect it from banging into the skull . There are very few cell in the CSF , so it ’s highly improbable that an implant located there would beset an immune reply . There is also pregnant glucose in the CSF , which does not in general get used by the body . Since only a small fraction of the useable power is utilized by the glucose fuel cell , the encroachment on the wit ’s function would in all likelihood be small .

The research worker are bright that their fuel jail cell will power assistive devices , including those citizenry with spinal - cord injuries . They acknowledge that it may be a few years before this happens , but that the next dance step will be to demonstrate that it can work in a living animal .

The discovery is part of an ongoing course in cybernetics in which biologic social occasion are steadily being mimicked with microelectronics , and where the consistency ’s own raw processes are leverage to restore function or supply vigour . We recently covered the potential forchemical circuitsandsynthetic synapsis , two ideas that are also part of bringing us nearer to true bionic woman condition . Sarpeshkar himself , in add-on to look at glucose fuel cells , has considered the electric potential for advanced cochlear implant and brain - machine port . His late breakthrough with glucose fuel cell will enable his workplace to move forrad , as he ’s now discovered a way to make such equipment self - powered .

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